Having devoted my entire life to this industry and making the dreams of girls and women come true. This gives me a unique perspective on our industry and our product. Is it wrong that I, on occasion, feel offended when women are disgusted by the costs of the gowns? Working to educate and explaining that a hand crafted bridesmaid dress will take approximately 10 hours from the cutting to walking out the door. Making hundreds of them, over the decades, has taught me much. Then one must consider the cost of the materials. Having made well over a thousand gowns in my life time I feel qualified to say that the ready to wear products in our industry are incredibly affordable when considering materials and labor values. There have been gowns that the lace alone cost $500 per yard. Keep in mind that the average brides maid gown will take 5 yards and the average bridal gown will take 10. Plus interfacing, plus lining, plus boning, plus thread and other detail elements. For many years I was in awe of how affordably these gowns had been produced.
There seems to be little awareness of what it takes to make these dreams come true. As if we have mice in the back rooms with needles and thread stitching things up. But no, there is no magic wand & there are no little mice or elves that work by our sides. Most of the people that I know, in this industry, work a long amount of hours, some on little to no pay to make your dreams come true.
Today my goal is to create awareness. Awareness of the consumers effects on others. I'm certain it's totally unbeknown nor even considered by the majority. Did you know that the majority of our products use to be made here in the USA in factories located here. Now, there still are some. But over time, in a quest to keep the costs affordable, production has been moved from the United States. And the majority, for decades, has been made in China.
China, whose government system is the Communist Party of China / and the People's Liberation Army. Under this form of government everybody works for the government. Of course, there are those who fare better than others. But my concern is for the lowly laborer. The person that makes your gown. I do not believe that most Americans are aware of the conditions that they labor under or the wages that they are paid. Which is the primary reason the costs are so low. If these gowns were made here, state side, at minimum wage (with benefits) we could expect them to cost 10x as much. When I learned the long hours and low wages that were paid to these humans I became overwhelmed to think that Americans are afforded luxury on the backs of people who are made slaves.
Did you know that in some worker work all day for lunch? In some factories the people live in barracks outside the factory so they do not have to "waste time going home". Americans would never submit to these conditions or way of living. The Chinese employees are accustomed to working six or seven days a week at many plants in China. They typically live dormitory-style, several people to an apartment. Leaving work in time to get home for family dinner is not part of their routine. (One Chinese worker explains that she only gets to see her child once a year, when she travels from the factory to her home town.) The company attempts to bring some approximation of these labor standards to the U.S., but the Americans, many of whom had previously been members of the United Auto Workers union, begin to complain about their working conditions. I have to believe that people do not know and therefore they behave as they do. I could not believe that they are, quite simply, so insensitive. But I am sure there are those that are. That is deeply saddening. Now there is much talk to move the production to India. This does not cause me to jump for joy. There are also squallor conditions that people work under in India. There is are several documentaries on the subject if you care to learn more.
So the next time you think to complain that the cost of the gown is to high: I beg of you to remember these people who suffer in abject poverty, or the women in this country who have very small profit margins so that you may have luxury affordably. Every discount you receive is at someone else's cost.
